This latest clash comes just days after First Minister Carwyn Jones expressed disappointment that Wales was not mentioned in the UK Budget and warned that the nation could take a disproportionate hit from the cuts agenda.

It also follows widespread anger that the UK Government has refused to give the Assembly the power to abolish the right of tenants to buy council houses.

An Assembly Government spokesperson said: “The [minister] responsible for relations with the Department of Work and Pensions, Leighton Andrews, last week asked for a meeting with Mr Iain Duncan Smith out of concern that DWP Ministers may not fully understand the different processes operating in Wales, post-devolution.”

Menna Machreth, chair of Cymdeithas yr Iaith, was alarmed by the proposals, sayingsaid: “Many of our Welsh-speaking communities suffer from chronic youth unemployment. It seems that the Tories and the Liberals would want to break up these communities by urging young people to move to other areas in such of work, thus accentuating what is already a massive problem. This is reminiscent of the way in which Irish-speaking communities were destroyed in the 19th century through mass migration.”

Mr Duncan Smith’s proposals triggered memories of former Tory minister Norman Tebbit’s 1981 “get on your bike” call for the jobless to go out and look for work. The MP, who represents Lord Tebbit’s former parliamentary seat of Chingford, insisted “radical reform” was needed.

He argued millions of people were “trapped in estates where there is no work” and could not move because they would lose their accommodation. The proposals would allow them to go to the top of the housing list in another area rather than giving up their right to a home.

He said: “We have over the years, not us personally but successive governments, created one of the most static workforces in the western world”.

He continued: “In Britain now we have workforces that are locked to areas and the result of that is we have over five and a half million people of working age who simply don’t do a job.

“Often they are trapped in estates where there is no work near there and – because they have a lifetime tenure of that house – to go to work from east London to west London, or Bristol, or whatever is too much of a risk because if you up sticks and go you will have lost your right to your house.

“The local council is going to tell you that you don’t have a right to a house there, the housing association is not going to give you one. We have to look at how we get that portability, so that people can be more flexible, can look for work, can take the risk to do it.”

He said: “Iain Duncan Smith highlights one possible practical solution to a real problem facing people at a time of housing crisis and massive waiting lists across England and Wales. The new UK Government has committed itself to a respect agenda which acknowledges devolution and pledges to work in co-operation with the devolved administrations.

“I am therefore confident that should Ian Duncan Smith choose to develop this suggestion into a policy proposal he would be engaging with the Welsh Government.”

The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition is believed to be looking at providing incentives for workers to relocate, rather than compelling them to move. Ministers will unveil measures in the coming weeks to “make work pay”, including changing the threshold at which claims are withdrawn so people who work do not lose all their benefits.

Labour leadership candidate Ed Miliband – who is backed by former Welsh Secretary Peter Hain – said the proposals were a retreat “back to the 1980s”.

He said: “[What] he is saying to whole parts of the country is: ‘we have no hope as a government of getting work into your area so you are going to have to move out of your communities’. And that is frankly disgraceful.”

A DWP spokesman said: “This is an initial proposal looking at how we get portability, so that people can be more flexible in looking for work and further details will be set out in due course.”

Recently Published

OVER the past several years I have written to the Echo to oppose proposed parking control zones and privatised parking enforcement schemes put forward by the pre-2008 Cardiff council that originated with the even earlier Russell Goodway Labour-led city council.

WalesOnline is part of Media Wales, publisher of the Western Mail, South Wales Echo, Wales on Sunday and the seven Celtic weekly titles, offering you unique access to our audience across Wales online and in print.